Anyone using plasma lights? Just heard about them, supposed to be amazing.
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I feel like if they were so great, people would be using them already. But, IDK anyone anywhere using one.
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They were āall the rageā and the ānew thingā in 2009 I remember a local hydro shop really trying to push them and then after they sold their stock basically gave up on it and stopped stocking bulbs and ballasts leaving the few that bought them upset and without bulbs.
I heard it had great UV but it didnāt really have the spectrum people wanted for flower.
When I saw them back then I think it was like $300 Cad for a new bulb or something ridiculous and the ballast was like 1k(think it came with a bulb though)
Edit- I think CMH out shined them with UV and multiple spectrum bulbs
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Same thing I was going to say. That was right when digital ballasts came out too. My grow store was pushing both sooooo hard then
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Yuuuup pretty sure they were more or less eclipsed by ceramic metal halideā¦hell you canāt find them in stock, no one seems to still be making them, etc. Iām so wary of light technology lolā¦itās always āthe next big thingā.
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Iād go with LED instead-
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Iāve been following Sun On Demand for awhile now, and been in contact with them regarding trials. Seems like itāll be around $6000 for a fixture shipped. From what little anecdote Iāve heard, people who have tried them are sold. Iām rather ignorant on the technology, but I believe it too is a plasma system. They offer over 200 custom made bulbs to mimic exact spectra from regions around the world. ie. You can grow your Durban Poison with the same photoperiod and exact spectrum of light which is received in Durban, South Africa.
https://www.thesunondemand.com/specifications/#specifications.
Over the years Iāve heard comments ranging from dubious skepticism to exclamations of salvation. Still a mystery beyond my budget, rolling around in the back of my mind. The specs they claim are incredible, and the side by side trials are amusing. I expect only the experienced smokers and gardeners will know if it was worth the investment, after having trialed it.
What are your thoughts on Sun On Demand?
https://www.thesunondemand.com/category/partners/case-studies/
edit: added case studies
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I hope this is a typo.
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Hah, no it is not. Was very hard to even get a quote from them. Took a few weeks of back and forth emailing before we even talked price. We mostly talked philosophy and gardening actually.
āNot only are the plants happy with it, but it seems like itās helping to heal these plants. I could feasibly do an eight foot tall plant in here and have enough light to do it. And thereās absolutely no heat from it. You can actually touch the bulb.ā - Hawk Marsden, Master Medical Cultivator of UcannaTu Educational Nursery
I can only hopeāas I have since 2017āthat this technology will gain momentum. It seems like their company has a strong moral component, in that they only want to share their technology with like-minded peoples. This, and the price point, make the lighting system somewhat obscure in our culture, despite being around a few years now with some incredible claims. Theyāre a relatively small company it seems. These factors cause some to worry that they are scam artists. Personally, I am intensely curious to see where it goes. I mention them any time I have the chance.
consider:
-identical spectrum to sun; both specific regions and times of year
-bulb with no heat, touchable/safe
-largest footprint iāve ever seen for a single fixture
-such a wide wavelength of radiation pathogens have difficulty surviving
-the greatest electrical efficiency iāve ever seen
-deepest canopy penetration iāve seen
Every time I go over the specs I think too good to be true. I scream out inside wondering why more people arenāt trying this. Especially considering how eager people are to waste money getting into the ācannabis gameā in recent years (green rush).
Iām eager to discuss the light. And my mentality is, āWho cares the price if it produces the best quality?ā My entire life has been directed by the sole pursuit of quality. Iām 11 years into this chase and I canāt imagine going back to MH/HPS or florescents again. To me itās only Sun, CMH, and LED. If weāre talking quality of high, Sun. Quality of flower, CMH. Quality of life, LED. I like not being burned by my LED fixtures, or not inhaling mercury vapor from a broken bulb, or having quite so high a chance of fire risk. So LEDs are my workhorses indoors. They grow the plants just fine. Nice and silently too; less fans required. But if Iām going to be smoking something or ripening seed, it has to go under CMH for the UV. It just produces higher quality flower and seed. And both look pretty good in a bag. But the Sun is where itās at. Sun grown herb sits in the jar lookinā like mids, but the high is a good two hours, and so much more complex and enjoyable than indoor, which are the true mids.
This light just straight up tempts the organic hippy headstash quality plant nerd type of cultivator into shelling out whatever it costs.
Anyway theyāre nice folk. Hope it is legit. Hope it penetrate the market. Hope the manufacturing cost can drop. Would be great to just have that legit sunlight indoors. Not even for growing plantsājust life. Iād love to see my kids grow up, never having felt depression from working long hours under fluorescent lighting; playing inside in the garden all winter like itās Spring; keeping that tan going year round; just feeling happy.
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Iāll stay with QB LEDs they rock. For $6000 you can get the best of the best with computer controlled everything.
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Sounds both culty and too incredible to be true.
Tech might be there, butā¦folks are gonna need to see results for that price tagā¦better light a 10x10 area somehow lol
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I just took the plunge and got an LED, thought maybe I effed up. 
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Why, is it not full spectrum?
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Its about 5600kelivin, a lot of blue like the sun. The spectrum goes from about 280/290 which I think classes as uvb and uva and then goes far far into infra red. Alot of the energy goes into infra red that im not sure is usable by the plant but im not a scientist. For the price tho I guess you may just be better off using led with far red and ir and cmh higher in blue and uva/uvb tubes. Natural sunlight is usually quite heavy in blue more so than the current spectrums we use with led, but we can easily adjust that for alot cheeper than the cost of this sun on demand system. Alot of the main difference with these landraces in their natural environment is down to the soil and air conditions an the wide band spectrum with uv and ir. As long as you match that you should be able to create similar, but I dont think making minor changes in things like abit more yellow or green in different grows will change things drastically. As long as its wide band and plant specific thats all the plants need. Just my two cents. Intresting concept if it were alot cheeper tho.
Which LED light did you get?
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I did t realize these were still being made. I remember a few years before LEDs really hit the market these things were being hyped as the next step in lighting.
Then as soon as they popped in the scene they seemed to disappear and in came the Red/Blue leds. I know for a fact those original LEDs turned a lot of people off for awhile.
I canāt imagine those being very good for anything other than supplemental lighting for a green house. The fact they can mimick the light the plants would receive during the day eliminating any chance of shock from a sudden spectrum change may be great. Other than that there is far better tech out there for the indoor grow market and itās all far cheaper than that quoted price
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Mars hydro ts3000 by no means high end but good so far.
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My QB Tenth the price of plasmaā¦I donāt care how good it is
Hey, good luck with it-
You donāt like the light? Iāve heard Mars hydro has improved.